A man who put his “blood and sweat” into his car wash business that was destroyed in a fire has been left with nightmares since his severe injuries.
The man, who asked not to be named, but who has been working at the A-Star Car Wash at Hawthorne Avenue, just off Kenton Road, tried to stop the fire that was breaking out on July 19.
Firefighters reportedly took around 45 minutes to reach the scene, as the London Fire Brigade had declared a “major incident” that day amid a record-breaking heatwave and blazes across the capital.
During this time, the man was trying to put out a fire in a car when it exploded into a fireball.
Mary, a family friend from Harrow who wished to not share her surname, said: “Fire travels very fast, you just don’t what happens, so there was just an explosion in a couple of seconds."
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The man was rushed to Northwick Park Hospital in Harrow, but was quickly transferred to Chelsea and Westminster Hospital where he stayed for three weeks.
It took fire services over five hours to get the blaze under control as ten fire engines and 70 firefighters tackled the flames.
Around 100 people were evacuated from a block of flats, and the car wash along with a disused church hall and two semi-detached houses were destroyed.
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